


family

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Malcolm has more family than he thinks :), Team as Family, Whump, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26904184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: whumptober day 8 - prompt: found family (alt no.7). malcolm gets beat up and his family is there for him.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Malcolm Bright & Ainsley Whitly, Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright & Edrisa Tanaka, Malcolm Bright & JT Tarmel, Malcolm Bright & Jessica Whitly
Comments: 8
Kudos: 56
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	family

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!!! welcome to this fic, it's not the most whumpy bc its more about that good good found family shit...anyway i have no idea when this is set but call it post-s1, in some sorta semi-well-adjusted future lol

Malcolm was used to a variety of types of pain. He’d been stabbed, crushed, jumped out of a window, kidnapped and tied up in his own basement, and, of course, brutalized emotionally. There wasn’t a whole lot of pain he’d yet to experience. 

Being in a fistfight, though, was one experience he’d never had. He’d been in plenty of scuffles, sure, but he’d never experienced a  _ full  _ beat-down. 

Until now. 

Punch after punch rained down on him, and, unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do to stop it - he’d been caught completely off guard, and now that he was aware of what was happening, wasn’t able to keep up. 

_ Thud. _ There was one to his shoulder.  _ Thump. _ Another to his stomach. He bent over slightly at that one, which his assailant took immediate advantage of, sending a sharp uppercut to the underside of Malcolm’s jaw. 

His head snapped up and backwards, and the distinctive sound of teeth smacking each other echoed through his skull. He saw stars for a second, felt his tongue burn where he’d bitten down on it.  _ That one had really hurt... _

Another punch to his stomach. He avoided doubling over this time, absorbing the punch as best as he could instead. The next punch was aimed at his nose, and he managed to raise a hand to block it, lashing out with a punch of his own. 

His punch didn’t do much, but it gave him some confidence that there was at least a chance he’d make it out of this without being carried off on a stretcher. 

He’d no sooner thought that than a vicious hook punch slammed into the left side of his face, and he spun away from it, ears ringing. He took a step, stumbled, and a final blow was delivered directly to the center of his face. He thought he heard something make a truly alarming snapping sound, but whatever the noise might’ve been was overshadowed by the sudden explosion of blinding white pain that came with it. 

He collapsed to the ground, powerless to stick out an arm to break his fall. His body hit the ground in his second explosion of pain in ten seconds.  _ God, that hurt, _ he thought, struggling to keep his thoughts coherent. His ears were ringing and his vision was blurring, and he knew he didn’t have much consciousness left.  _ So much for not being carried away from here on a stretcher. _

Through his ringing ears, Malcolm heard the fading footsteps of his attacker, evidently having been satisfied with the beating he’d delivered. Malcolm didn’t much care that he was getting away. All that mattered was that he was, which meant that Malcolm was safe from further harm, which was all the encouragement it took for him to pass out. 

\--

He woke up in his own bed.  _ Huh, _ he thought to himself, lifting his arms experimentally and discovering he wasn’t tied up. _ Figured I’d be in the hospital.  _

A clatter from the kitchen interrupted any further thinking he might have done on the matter. Malcolm quickly sat up in bed, intending to get up. That plan was cut short when a wave of dizziness washed over him. He braced himself against the mattress, closing his eyes and waiting for it to pass. 

A minute or two later, when his head cleared, Malcolm opened his eyes. And nearly screamed, until he realized what was happening.  _ People  _ were in his loft. But not just any people.

“How you feeling, kid?” Gil asked from his left side, reaching out a hand and gripping Malcolm’s shoulder comfortingly. 

“You had us worried for a second there, Bright,” Dani chimed in from beside him.

“Sorry for scaring you,” Edrisa added from the foot of the bed. 

“Your kitchen is really sad, man,” JT said, from beside Gil. “Couldn’t even make a sandwich.”

“He’s right, Malcolm,” his mother agreed. “What  _ do  _ you eat?”

“Leave him alone, Mom,” Ainsley said. “He was just beaten unconscious.”

There was a brief uncomfortable silence at this, but Malcolm broke it.

“What are you all doing here?” he asked. Not that he wasn’t happy about it. All the people he cared about, here in his house, apparently having been waiting around for him to wake up...it made him feel warm inside, a welcome sensation to distract from the pain of what he was pretty sure was a couple of bruised ribs. 

“To echo Ainsley,” Edrisa said, “you were  _ kinda  _ not doing so well.”

“What were we gonna do?” Dani added, “Leave you here by yourself?”

Dani’s mention of being at his house reminded Malcolm of the question he’d had when he’d first woken up. “Shouldn’t I be in the hospital? I  _ was  _ beaten unconscious.”

“You denied that accusation. Repeatedly,” Gil said. “You insisted you were fine.”

“Of course, you weren’t,” his mother asserted.

“The paramedics said you didn’t have a concussion. They let us take you home, as long as someone agreed to stay with you,” Dani explained.

Malcolm sat in silence for a moment, processing all of that information. He remembered, dimly, being attacked. He did  _ not  _ remember insisting he was fine, nor did he remember any paramedics. 

“It’s a miracle you didn’t have a concussion,” Gil said, voicing Malcolm’s exact thoughts. 

“You do have three bruised ribs, several facial lacerations, and an impressive shiner,” Edrisa pointed out. 

“Lovely,” Malcolm said, not caring to imagine what he must have looked like. But there was something else at the front of his mind - 

“Wait, only one of you needed to stay.”

Every single person in the room stared at him. 

“What?”

JT stepped forward. “You really think we would all just leave you here?”

“Which one of us would have stayed?” Dani asked. 

“You think I’d leave you here alone with  _ Mom?” _ Ainsley suggested.

“Well, I would hardly leave you here with just a coworker,” his mother countered.

“No way was I missing out,” Edrisa said firmly.

“We’re all here for you Malcolm,” Gil concluded. “Always.”

Malcolm smiled, feeling himself go slightly teary-eyed but not minding it too much. “Thanks,” he managed to say.

“Anything, man.”

“Of course.”

“Always.”

“You’d do the same for us.”

“That’s what family does.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading this!!!! i hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think!


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